CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears did a lot of things right Thursday night in knocking off the second-place Sam Houston State Bearkats 80-71 in front of a crowd of 1,378 at the Farris Center.

UCA (7-19, 4-11) had four players in double figures, led by senior guard LaQuentin Miles with 24 points and 12 rebounds, his eighth career double-double. Miles scored 13 points in the first half, leading the Bears to a 38-34 halftime lead. They never trailed in the second half as fellow senior DeShone McClure scored 11 of his 14 points after halftime.
   
It was UCA's first victory over Sam Houston in the 12th career meeting.

"I think the guys really did pay attention to detail tonight,' said UCA Coach Clarence Finley. "Coach (Chris) Sartorius did a really good job with the scouting report. We had their personnel down to a T. I thought we made some great adjustments late in the game. We were able to contest shots and just give them one shot. And we didn't foul the three-point shooters late in the game.'

UCA was down 10-2 to start the game but fought back and eventually took the lead for good on Jalen Jackson's three-pointers with 8:43 to play in the first half. The Bears made 6 of 12 from beyond the arc in the first half, but only 1 of 5 in the second half. Instead, UCA spread the floor and worked its way to the basket, drawing 18 fouls in the final 20 minutes.

The Bears, who shot just two free throws in the first half, made 17 of 26 in the second half to hold off the Bearkats (19-8, 11-4). Miles was 8 of 10 at the line, while McClure was 2 of 3 and freshman DuShaun Rice was 4 of 6.

"We made some big free throws down the stretch when we had to make them,' said Finley. "We shot 67 percent, we wanted to try to get it to 70 percent. We handled their press pretty well, we were strong with the ball. We were able to get the ball up the floor and get to the free throw line.

"We wanted to run our motion in the second half when we got into the bonus, and run some clock. We shot it quick a few times and we had to sub some people in because they didn't understand we wanted to run the clock. We held the lead because we didn't shoot those quick shots.'

The Bearkats, who had a five-game winning streak broken last week, cut a 15-point deficit with 12:45 to play down to just four points at the 3:00 mark. But UCA answered with a three-point play by Daouda Berete and three free throws from Rice to push the lead  back to eigh tpoints at 76-68 with 1:11 left.

From there, junior Lenell Brown made two at the line and Miles turned in a big blocked shot on Paul Baxter's three-point attempt with 20 seconds left. Brown put the final touch on the win with a slam dunk in the final seconds as UCA broke a four-game losing streak.

"They really want to win these last few games,' said Finley. "They're starting to pay attention to the details. We're going to try to finish strong. We have Senior Day coming up and we want to send these two seniors, LaQuentin Miles and DeShone McClure with a bang.'

Brown finished with 11 points and Jackson had 10 for the Bears. UCA outrebounded SHSU 48-35, pulling down 14 offensive rebounds and scoring 18 second-chance points. Four players had at least seven rebounds for the Bears. UCA also blocked nine shots, one short of tying the season high.

SHSU's Jabari Peters had 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Kaheem Ransom added 16 points.

UCA will host the Lamar Cardinals for "Senior Day" at 4 p.m. Saturday.